Aretha Franklin: I Never Had Pancreatic Cancer

Aretha Franklin is on the mend and she's setting the record straight about her December health scare. Sort of.

Though the Queen of Soul declines to get into the specifics of the problem, she wants to make one thing clear: "I don’t know where 'pancreatic cancer' came from," the Grammy winner, 68, told Access Hollywood in a Thursday interview. "I was sitting there reading the newspaper and it was saying someone in my family said that. No one in my family ever said that to anybody."

What she will reveal, however, is that she sought treatment after experiencing a pain in her side that "was so hard it almost brought me to my knees."

And following a successful procedure, Franklin is back and better than ever.

"[My doctor] said, 'The surgery that you just had is going to add 15 to 20 more years to your life," she said, adding that she's slimmed "down to a rockin' [size] 16-18. It’s getting better every day. I plan on keeping this weight that I have now -- I’m so happy with it."